


A Million Sparks

by inkcharm



Category: Moon Child (2003)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Pre-Slash, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-27
Updated: 2011-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-28 06:24:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/304715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkcharm/pseuds/inkcharm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kei watched the fireworks; Sho watched his face instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Million Sparks

The sky was black. Stars were sprinkled all over the velvet darkness. Distant and far apart, and yet to the observer so far below on earth they seemed to belong to each other. A network of glittering lights, connected by invisible threads and spread all over the world. Never mind what they were in the purely physical sense; in the end they were the lights lighting up the night, the fabric of romance and poetry, the jewels of a kingdom far beyond. Lights that had the power to make a person lose themselves in something that was out of reach.

  
When Sho reached for Kei's hand, the vampire pulled it away and rested it in his own lap.

  
In a minute or two the fireworks would erupt into the night. They would paint the sky in colours, hide the stars and create an altogether different kind of magic. Reds and blues and yellows, flashing and glittering and glowing on darkest midnight. Entrancing and beautiful and magical. The square was filled with people. Couples, mostly. In Mallepa, there were no romantic tales about what would happen if you kissed your lover beneath the fireworks, or about how easily a girl would fall in love with you if you took her here. But even here, people yearned for romance, yearned for something special to shine over them as they looked for tenderness in their rough lives. Many guys had brought their girls to the square.

  
This was not a date. Kei had made that very clear.

  
Still they sat huddled close together to ward off every outside influence. Two seemingly young, harmless men against the rest of the world, silent and shivering; one because he was always cold, the other because they were so close and yet so far away. Like stars. Distant, connected, close, all the opposites at once. Their eyes darted in different directions constantly and never met, because they didn't need to. They looked where the other didn't look, and somehow could tell what the other saw. A slight tension, a soft sigh, lips curling just a fraction in amusement, fingertips drumming in impatience, heartbeat, stillness, a million way to read a person without a word, a glance, a thought.

  
Sho thought they could be so much more, but wondered if reality could ever live up to his imagination.

  
When Kei looked up, Sho knew the fireworks were beginning. Sure enough, just a heartbeat later the first lights exploded against the night sky, blinding the onlookers and causing cheers and glee to spread through the square. The only time when things were cheerful in Mallepa, and peaceful, too. When the fireworks went up, the town held its breath and just watched, mesmerized, all bloodshed forgotten. Individuality disappeared, and the crowd melted into one; one eye trained on the spectacle, one mind barely able to comprehend the beauty it beheld, one heart clenching in awe, one breath caught in the throat. Exploding colours chased each other across the sky, shapes and symbols sizzling in and out of life, crackling with glee as they revealed themselves to the onlookers for just a moment or two before fading from view as though never having existed, only to be replaced by the next one. No photograph could ever come close to this, because it was the pace, the movement that made for the whole beauty.

  
For Kei, beauty was different than for other people.

  
His green eyes were wide as he stared at the sky, unblinking and unmoving, frozen in time. A rainbow of colours was reflected on his face, like colours splashed on a white canvas, transforming the picture with each layer. Soft angles were painted hard, hard angles were painted sensual, sensual angles were painted innocent. Life. Death. His senses picked up the nuances no one around him would ever be aware of. The colours were brighter. The whirring and whistling of the rockets was louder. The flashes faded less quickly. Each explosion was like a heartbeat in his ears, each bright splash across the darkness above like life in its purest form. Blooming, stretching, opening, fading, going, gone.

  
Kei watched the fireworks, colours erupting and fading, a myriad of life and death and beauty that left his lips hanging open and his breath coming in short gasps. Sho watched his face, a spectacle far more beautiful to behold.   
Life wasn't eternal. Could never be and should never be. Fireworks were beautiful because they were fleeting. It was what made them magical. The fact that they would disappear made them shine all the more brightly. And yet their fragile intensity brought a spark even to Kei's dead soul. For just this time, the heartbeats around him were not a bother but a caress, the harmony to the fireworks' song. Life was everywhere, maybe he was the only one who could ever truly appreciate its beauty and tragedy. Several rockets exploded red, each explosion bigger than the last so that the effect was three dimensional. As if the colours were shooting towards the spectators. Cheers erupted. Kei remained silent, but there was a tug on the corner of his lips.

  
Kei's smile was like life; beautiful because it was so fleeting; radiant because it died so quickly.

  
The last fireworks were raining golden from the skies. It was as if the stars were falling, hundreds, thousands, millions of sparks glittering before the midnight sky and gently drifting down to earth. The jewels of a kingdom far beyond, the network of guiding lights coming undone to drift down to earth. More and more rockets were shot up, one after the other and then several at once that exploded with a sound that was both like a first and last heartbeat, reverberating in the chest and touching deeply, as though the sparks were pure emotion and no one could escape them. When the last hint of glitter faded away, applause rose from the crowd. Weights had been lifted from heavy hearts tonight, because that was what art could do to the soul. Touch, move, take the breath away and change everything, at least for that one fleeting moment. Art, life, love.

  
A million sparks were just enough to warm one heart.

  
The people cleared away, abandoning the square one after the other. Just two figures stayed there, knees touching just slightly. Without a word spoken between they waited for everything to clear away; the chatter, the people, the smoke obscuring the stars. Slowly, they revealed themselves again, calm and eternal, and together the two people crouched on the square in Mallepa let out a long breath. Unchanging, the stars would stay right where they were now, glittering in the sky, a silent reminder and witness of the fleeting beauty just witnessed. Life and death. Mortality and eternity. Warm and cold. Bright colours and pale jewels. Too fleeting to touch, too far to reach.

  
On the way home, Kei reached out and took Sho's hand.

 


End file.
